


God Syndrome

by IsenamLavellan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 12:52:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15729780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsenamLavellan/pseuds/IsenamLavellan
Summary: Celestine - A voodoo witch on the path of greatness.Harper and Harry - A pair of half-twins (siblings born at the same time to the same mother but had different fathers) who really DID NOT sign up for this.What could go wrong? Spoiler Alert! Everything.





	1. Chapter 1

Celestine, 1971

The smell of rain is thick in the air. The wind howls loudly and bangs fragile shutters against the side of a small hut in the bowels of a Louisiana swamp. A hurricane is on the horizon, but the residents of the hut appear not to notice or care. Instead, they sit in a kitchen; the dim lights casting sharp shadows over their faces and making their matching eyes gleam almost eerily.

The residents are all females of varying ages. The eldest has deep wrinkles etched into her dark skin and only possesses grey wisps of hair on top of her mostly bald head. She sits at the head of the table, hands clasped before her and gazes at the two younger females with stern eyes. 

On her right, sits the next eldest. Unlike the matriarch at the head, she has a full head of thick, ebony curls with grey only lightly highlighting her hair. While she does have wrinkles, they are few and shallow. Only appearing around her eyes and lips.

The youngest, a mere girl, takes the spot on the left. Her own ebony curls have been tightly braided and rests over her left shoulder. She gazes at the two older women with curiosity and child-like wonder, but does not dare utter a word.

“Celestine,” The matriarch begins, her voice high pitched and shaky, “you have reached the age where you will soon attend the school your mother and I and my mother before me and so on have attended. Ilvermorny. Now they usually give you your wand when you first start, but us Voodoo witches have a tradition of our own.” She gestures to the other woman, who quickly stands and scurries off to the next room.

The girl can not help herself but to speak. “Tradition, memaw? What do ya mean? I thought you and mama have already taught me everythang.”

The old woman laughs, more of a wheezing sound really. “We have taught you everythang you know, but now everythang we know. You still have a bunch to learn before you reach my age.”  

“Or even mine.” The other woman says, returning to the room with a thin, long rectangle box in hand.

“This is a special wand.” The elder says as the top to the box is removed, revealing a strange looking wand within it. It appears to be three wands twisted into one. On the handle are three heads. A wolf, a serpent, and a mermaid all with their heads bowed and eyes closed. “This wand was created by none other than Marie Laveau and has been in our family for many generations.” She carefully, lovingly, picks up the wand. “The wolf of ceder with the core of a rougarou hair is strong and loyal, but also capable of the darkest magic. The snake of elm with the core of a horned serpent horn is elegant and produces highly advanced magic. It will sing for you when danger approaches. And, finally, the mermaid of dogwood with the core of a white river monster spine. While mischievous, it is able to produce serious magic of force and elegance.” 

The other woman leans forward, gazing at the wand longingly. “If you awaken anyone of the heads then its a sign you’ll be going on an adventure to awaken the other two.”

The old woman nods sagely, “Yes. But you can’t wake them up by lonesome. You will need help.”

Celestine nods. Glancing up at the other two women, she nervously licks her bottom lip and swallows. Reaching out, she grasps the handle of the wand and removes it from her grandmother’s wrinkled hands and holds it up in the candlelight. She watches in amazement as the serpent comes to life. It emits a hissing sound as it rises to strike, only to freeze in the offensive stance. 

The two older women look at each other, surprised at the turn of events. “And so it begins.” The old woman speaks as lightning strikes a nearby tree, casting the room in white light.


	2. Chapter 2

Harper and Harry, 1991

Harry shivers almost violently in Harper’s arms. She tightens her hold on her brother and tries to cover him better with the moth eaten blanket, ignoring the bite of cold upon her own skin when she does so. She sends a smoldering glare towards where the Dursleys sleep in the other room and curses the fat walrus and horse for putting both her and Harry in this situation. 

“We’ll be eleven in a few minutes.” Harry comments, wincing as the cool scales of Harper’s boomslang creeps across his chilly skin to reach it’s mistress.

“Harry,” Harper gently scolds, “you are suppose to be sleeping.”  
“And what about you?” He challenges.

“I am much better at handling sleep deprivation than you.” She scoffs.

Harry snorts softly and rolls his eyes, “You nearly caused a house fire once.” 

“I was worried about you. My lack of sleep did not cause that.” She defends herself.

“I was fine. Just had a slight cold.” He tells her.

“With a high fever.” She responds, lightly flicking his nose, “Now sleep.” 

“You are so demanding.” He grumbles and snuggles closer to the warmth of his sister, but does not close his eyes to sleep. Instead he watches the time tick by on Dudley’s watch. “Three more minutes.”

Harper sighs, “Harry.” She groans, messaging her brow, “Go. To. Sleep.”

“Make me.” He says, tilting his head up to stick his tongue out at her.

“Believe me. If I could, I would.” She tells him, “I would put a trance over you that would make you stay asleep for hundreds of years. Then I would hide you in the deepest bowels of the earth in a secure vault with no less than three dragons guarding you.”

“So a maximum security Sleeping Beauty?” He questions.

Harper nods, “Yes. No prince charming would ever be able to find you.”

The next few seconds pass, blessedly silent. “You know, that is pretty creepy.”

Harper sighs once again. But before she can utter a response, a loud, booming bang emits from the door. The Dursleys are startled awake and come running into the main room. Both Harry and Harper jump to their feet. 

Harper pushes a disgruntled Harry behind her and into the shadows. She wraps her serpent around his neck and gives him a serious stare. “Stay here and try not to make…” Another booming bang rattles the walls, “…any noise.”

“What about you?” He hastily demands, only receiving a brief smile before she moves to hide his form from any who dare glance their way. One more loud bang and the door comes flying off. The being standing in the doorway fills Harper with icy fear. She swallows audibly and takes a step back.

Harry peers over his sister’s shoulder, intent on seeing the intruder. His eyes widen at the sheer size of the man. He has to bend and suck in his massive gut just to fit through the doorway. 

“Sorry ‘bout that.” The giant says, picking up the door and putting it back in place. “Couldn’t make us a cup o’ tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey.” He lumbers over to the couch where Dudley sits frozen. “Budge up, yeh great lump.” The pudgy boy emits a undignified and terrified squeak and scampers to hide behind his parents.

The giant sits down on the couch, the piece of furniture groaning and sagging beneath his great weight. His gaze shifts over to where Harper stands. “An here’s Harper!” He beams, “An’ is that Harry behind yeh?” Harry pushes past Harper to get a better look at the giant, missing the expression of worry and fear that passes over her features as he does so. “Las’ time I saw you two, you was only a babies.” The giant says, leaving forward a bit. “Yeh both look a lot like yeh dads, but yeh’ve got yeh mom’s eyes.” 

Vernon makes a strangled noise, drawing everyone’s eyes to him. His face is redder than a tomato and Harry is sure his head is about to explode. He holds up a gun, pointing it right at the giant. Harper’s hand wraps around Harry’s arm, drawing him away from the danger and to a safer corner of the shack. “I demand you leave at once!” Vernon bellows, the gun shaking a bit. “You are breaking and entering!”

“Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune.” The giant says angrily, jerking the gun from Vernon’s hands and easily tying it into a knot and tossing it into a shadowy part of the shack. “Anyway, Harry, Harper,” He says, turning his attention back to the siblings, “a very happy birthday to yeh both. Got summat fer yeh, here. I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.”

From one of the many pockets of his coat, he pulls a slightly damaged box. Harry reaches to take it, but is stopped when he feels Harper gently squeeze his arm. “We are not taking anything from you. We don’t even know who you are.” Her voice is laced with unease, but still sounds confident and unafraid.

The giant looks at them for a moment before chuckling and setting the box to the side. “True, I haven’t introduced myself. Rebeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.” He says standing and holding out his hand, but when neither of the twins take his hand, his smile loses some of it’s joy.

“That tells us pretty much nothing.” Harper says, eyeing this ‘Rebeus Hagrid’ warily.

“Yeh know all about Hogwarts, right?” Hagrid questions them.

“Er, no.” Harry answers, “Sorry.”

A look of shock passes over Hagrid’s face as he rounds on the Dursleys. “Sorry!?” He exclaims, “It’s them that should be sorry! I knew yeh two weren’t gettin’ yer letters, but I never thought yeh wouldn’t even know abou’ Hogwarts, fer cryin’ out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yeh parents learned it all?”

“Oh, we did manage to get a letter.” Harper admits, pulling an opened letter from a hidden pocket she had sewn into her oversized shirt. “Well, at least I did.”

“She used me as a distraction.” Harry deadpans.

“This should not come as a surprise to you at this point.” Harper responds to which Harry sighs and shakes his head.

Hagrid turns back to them, “So yeh do know?”

Harry shrugs, “We figured out a bit.” 

“But you know nothin’ abou’ our world, do yeh?” Hagrid asks. 

“That would be a negative.” Harper responds with a nod.

“But yeh must know abou’ your parents.” He says, “I mean, they’re famous. You’re both famous.”

“What?” Harry says with a raised eyebrow “Our parents weren’t famous, were they?”

“I mean, this is proof that we’re special, magical.” Harper speaks up, “With you being able to speak to snakes and me having a mental connection with Nyoka…Why couldn’t our parents be famous?” Hagrid pales at the mention of talking to snakes, but Harper seems to ignore him and continues speaking. “I think we should go to this school and…”

“You are not going! He’s not going! No one is going!” Vernon snaps at the pair, interrupting her.

“I’d like ter see a great Muggle like you stop them.” Hagrid says almost threateningly. 

“A what?” Harry questions.

“A Muggle. Its what we call non-magic folk like them. An’ its your bad luck you two grew up in a family o’ the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.”

“We swore when we took them in we’d put a stop to that rubbish.” Vernon continues, shaking a finger at them. “Swore we’d stamp it out of them!”

“So, you knew?” Harper questions. “You knew we were, are, magical?”

“Knew!” Petunia shrieks, “Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be? With my blasted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn and turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was. A freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!” She pauses to take a breath, “Then she met that Potter and Black at school and left and got married and had you two, and of course I knew you both would be just the same. Just as strange, just as abnormal and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you two!”

Harper becomes very still and the blood drains from Harry’s face. “Blown up?” He manages to squeak out.

“You told us they died in a car crash. That my father was drinking and driving.” Harper says, her tone icy.

“Car crash!” Bellows Hagrid, anger returning in full force. “How could a car crash kill Lily an’ James Potter!? An’ Sirius Black is still alive! Its an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter and Harper Black not knowin’ their own story when every kid in our world knows their name!”

“But why? What happen?” Harry asks, wanting, no, needing to know.

The anger fades away and Hagrid becomes nervous. “I never expected this. I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin’ hold of yeh two, how much yeh didn’t know.” He breathes deeply. “Ah, Harry, Harper, I don’ know if I’m the right person to tell yeh, but someone’s gotta. Yeh can’t go off to Hogwarts not knowin’. Well, its best yeh know as much as I can tel yeh. Mind, I can’t tell yeh everythin’, its a great myst’ry, parts of it..” He sits back down, finding the fabric of his clothes very interesting now. “It begins, I suppose, with-with a person called...But its incredible yeh don’t know his name, everyone in our world knows…”

“I am pretty sure we covered this topic already.” Harper says with an annoyed sigh, “We are not from your world.”

“Right.” Hagrid says with a nod, “Well, I don’ like sayin’ the name if I can help it. No one does.”

“Why not?” Harry questions.

“Gulpin’ gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared.” Hagrid tells him, “Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…”

“Could you write it down?” Harry suggests.

“Nah, can’t spell it.” He takes a breath, “All right. Voldemort.” He shudders almost violently. “Don’ make me say it again.”

“Voldemort?” Harper asks, causing Hagrid to flinch. “That is French, I believe. It means flight of death. Or thief of death depending on who you ask.” 

“How do yeh know that?” Hagrid asks.

“She reads.” Harry answers, “A lot.”

Harper nods, “Yes. I also think that it is a ridiculous name. Damien would have been a better choice if aiming for a French name. It means to subdue or tame. Bit more fitting for a bad wizard. Though it doesn’t have the dramatic flare that Voldemort has, does it?”

Hagrid flinches again, “Would yeh stop sayin’ it!”

“Harper?” Harry says.

“Hmm?” She hums.

“You’re debating the name of the one who killed our parents.” He tells her, “And you’re making Hagrid uncomfortable.”

“I am, aren’t I? I apologize.” She says, turning her attention back to Hagrid. “You said that my father is still alive. Where is he?”

“Azkaban.” Hagrid tells her grimly, “The wizard prison. Worst place there is.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Harper says with a groan, “Why?”

“Blew up his friend and…betrayed James an’ Lily.” He tells them, “He’s the reason why they’re gone.”

Harry looks at Harper and watches the gears turn behind her green eyes. “Is that so?” She says, really to herself, “We are going to this school, yes?”

“I am not paying for some crackpot old fool to teach them magic tricks!” Vernon yells, “They are not going!” 

Hagrid grabs his umbrella and jumps to his feet, almost knocking everyone else off of theirs. “NEVER,” He bellows, “INSULT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME!” He points the umbrella at Dudley and with a flash of violet and a cracking sound, Dudley is dancing in pain with his hands clasped over his backside. When he turns his back to them, they can see a pig’s tail poking a hole through his trousers. 

Petunia shrieks in horror and Vernon herds both her and the now pig boy into the other room. He casts one last glance towards Hagrid and the twins, then slams the door behind him.

“Shouldn’ta lost me temper.” He says to himself, “But it didn’t work anyway. Meant to turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn’t much left to do.” He glances at Harry and Harper, “Be grateful if yeh didn’t mention that to anyone at Hogwarts. I’m, er, not suppose to do magic, strictly speakin’. I was allowed to do a bit to follow yeh an’ get yer letters to yeh an’ stuff. One o’ the reasons I was so keen to take on the job.”

“Why aren’t you supposed to do magic?/Wouldn’t dream of it.” Harry and Harper say at the same time. They share a look and give each other a smile.

Hagrid chuckles at the pair. “Oh, well, I was at Hogwarts meself but I, er, got expelled, to tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an’ everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore.”

“Why were you expelled?” Harry questions.

“Its gettin’ late and we’ve got lots to do tomorrow.” Hagrid says quickly and loudly, “Gotta get up to town, get all yer books an’ that.” He shrugs off his coat and tosses it to them. “Yeh can kip under that. Don’ mind if it wriggles a bit. I think I still got a couple o’ dormice in one o’ the pockets.” He lays down on the couch, it once against groaning and sagging under his weight. 

Harper lays out the moth eaten blanket on the floor and takes her snake back from Harry. “At least we’ll be warm.” She says, as they both lay down on the blanket and pull the massive coat over them.

When Hagrid’s loud snores echo off the walls of the shack, Harry turns his head to Harper. “What were you thinking?” He questions her, “I saw the gears turning.”

“Other than that I’m pretty sure that my father didn’t betray our mum or your father?” She asks.

He nods then says, “Yes. Though I do wonder how you came to that conclusion.”

“I was thinking of ways where we weren’t have to return to our loving family.” She answers, “And I just have a feeling. Not enough to go on right now. There needs to be proof.”

“Care to share?” He asks, "About the not coming back part. Not the part where your dad is a dangerous criminal.”  
“I know which part you meant. I haven’t worked out the details. When I do, I’ll tell you.” She says, “For now, go to sleep.” He huffs, but does as she asks. Falling easily to sleep under the thick coat.


End file.
